Torah Scroll Found in Italian University Library is Possibly World’s Oldest

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Torah scroll. Photo: wiki commons.

JNS.org – A university in Italy has discovered what it said might be the oldest complete Torah scroll known to exist, according to a BBC report on Tuesday.

The scroll was found in a library at the University of Bologna. The report said the scroll was previously thought to be at most a few hundred years old, but textual, graphic and paleographic examination of the scroll, confirmed by carbon dating tests, determined that it was written around 800 years ago, between the second half of the 12th century and the beginning of 13th century (1155-1225).

A professor at the university was quoted as saying the scroll had been mislabeled by a librarian in 1889. That librarian dated the scroll to the 17th century, even though it was apparently much older.